Men's hoops picked to finish 13th in Big East

Despite finishing with a 9-9 record for a ninth-place showing last season, USF's men's basketball team was picked to finish 13th in the Big East in a preseason poll of the league's coaches released Wednesday morning in New York.

The low expectations are a reflection of the Bulls losing guard Dominique Jones, last year's conference scoring champion, to the NBA Draft, as well as fellow guards Chris Howard and Mike Mercer to graduation. As we wrote in Wednesday's Times, the lower expectations won't lessen the excitement and optimism within the team that this year's Bulls could be even better than last year's 20-win squad.

Here's how the preseason poll shakes out:

1. Pittsburgh (12)

222

2. Villanova (1)

208

3. Syracuse (2)

187

4. Georgetown

173

5. West Virginia

164

6. St. John’s (1)

145

7. Notre Dame

123

8. Louisville

121

Marquette

121

10. Connecticut

113

11. Seton Hall

104

12. Cincinnati

91

13. USF

54

14. Providence

36

15. Rutgers

32

16. DePaul

26

No USF players were among the 14 picked by the league's coaches to their preseason all-conference teams.

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South Florida Bulls fans, you've come to the right place: the USF Sports Bulletin blog. Tampa Bay Times sportswriter Joey Knight, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin, and we invite your participation in the comments area. Follow the Times' coverage of USF athletics on Twitter.